For the second time this month, a judge
has struck down Colorado's ban on gay marriage.
Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper
and Republican Attorney General John Suthers asked U.S. District
Judge Raymond P. Moore to declare invalid the state's ban but delay
implementation until the Supreme Court has ruled in a separate but
similar case.
Moore, who on Tuesday said he was
uncertain whether his ruling should be put on hold, decided to stay
the ruling until Monday, August 25.
While Moore's decision can be appealed
to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, the court has
already upheld lower court decisions striking down similar bans in
Utah and Oklahoma.
“The Court recognizes that the Tenth
Circuit or the Supreme Court may choose to issue a stay in this
matter,” Moore
wrote. “And this Court will not foreclose Defendants from
having a fair opportunity to seek such stay. Accordingly, as it
pertains to the preliminary injunction, this Court will temporarily
stay the preliminary injunction order until 8:00 a.m. on August 25,
2014, to permit Defendants time to seek a stay of the injunction from
a higher court.”
Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to
Marry, applauded the ruling.
“Judge Moore did the right thing
today, faithfully upholding both the Constitution and Colorado
values,” Wolfson said in a statement. “This is the second court
decision in favor of the freedom to marry just in Colorado – and
across the country, judge after judge, court after court, in state
after state have all examined the evidence and sifted through the
arguments and concluded that the denial of marriage to same-sex
couples cannot stand. It's time for the state attorney general to
stop spending taxpayer money to defend the indefensible and allow gay
couples to wed now.”
Earlier this month, Adams County
District Court Judge C. Scott Crabtree said the state's ban violates
the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
(Related: Judge
declares Colorado's gay marriage ban unconstitutional.)